Happy New Year, Mañana!

Lane Denton, blogger, retired Episcopal priest living in Nashville, TN, says it well in his piece today:

"We have three old clocks, the wind-up, pocketa-pocketa kind. I have an obsession about them that in spite of their age they simply must keep reasonably accurate time. Not Naval Observatory time like we needed when we flew over the Pacific, though that would be nice, but close enough so that the two that chime, chime within seconds of each other, preferably simultaneously.

"Maybe it's New Year's Eve that brings this to mind. For this is the worldwide grand moment of timekeeping when the entire planet takes notice of clocks and calendars. Only a few years ago on Y2K there was universal angst that we'd maybe never be able to do it again.

"Perhaps one of our vocations as human beings is so that time never has to stop until we do. Time is not really running out, it's just that we are. For that mater, time has really never in for it never was off stage, waiting for an entrance. If our notion of the Big Bag amounts to anything, that was its cue.

"Maybe the universe is one big clock, but so far as we know we may be the only ones who know it, but I doubt it. We keep time as if we think we'll never have to give it away. We are the town criers. And the cosmos very patiently lets us think it's important that we are. 'Wait for me,' we shouted as soon as we could talk.

"One of my handy word book crutches says that time comes from ti, meaning to stretch, meaning also more or less, the fit time, hence, the good time, prosperity, as in Let the good times roll. The early word for everyday time was tide, like Yuletide, glad tidings, high tide, low tide, and laundry soap. It took the Greeks to find kairos as fat time and chronos as thin time, the one always full of it, the other just sort of bammin' along, again, waiting for something to happen. Chronos waits for kairos. Guy Lombardo's band's yard-wide termolo forever once brought in the new year in with Auld Lang Syne, 'times gone by.' for which we all drank a cup of kindness yet, and then started up the violence again the next day in the bowl games.

"Mañana is really the rule of the day and especially of New Year's Day. Iraq? Mañana. The environment? Mañana. Our international reputation? Mañana. The busted up church ignoring Jesus' prayer that we all be one? Mañana.

"Mañana? If there is one, it is us".

Getting Licensed By the State

A few summers ago we were crossing Rosario Strait into Thatcher Pass. The sea was a little bumpy. Nothing extraordinary, just a 2-3 foot chop which meant taking a slow run approaching the pass entrance. There were quite a few boats, plus a westbound ferry, starting to squeeze together as the entrance narrows. The situation was not really bad with everyone seeming reasonably cautious and slow, even the ferry. Then, immediately off my port side came a 45+ cruiser, speeding by (to be first into the entrance?), kicking up a tremendous wake.

Another classic yacht further off our port side, complete with two couples relaxing on their aft deck in equally classic rattan deck chairs, and probably nursing refreshing glasses of ice tea, were thrown about like corks on an angry ocean. We throttled back but still took a good rolling from the wake. With no time, and no maneuvering room, there was nothing else to do except ride it. I don't think we had anything broken below decks; I suspect our neighbor's cool summer drinks were sloshed.

At too many times, too many of us out cruising have been horrified, angry, or scared to death - - perhaps all three - - at the behavior of other boaters, let alone our own actions.

One year ago, January 1st, 2008, to be exact, Washington State joined many other states and countries mandating that boaters 12-years and over pass an approved boating education course in order to operate a boat with a motor rated over 15 horse power. Although there are many approved courses available, Washington State also developed its own program, the Boating Safety Course, which actually launched in 2006. This is a big step forward, but it does have some limitations. The boating education courses are "class room" settings with no actual boat handling testing. It's very like being qualified to drive a car if you only take the written exam but not that anxiety-producing white-knuckled driving test. But it is a good start. 

The Washington State's Boating Safety course includes:

• having a knowledge of the different types of boats (power and sail)
•  types of engines
• float plans
  
• fueling
• trailering
• leaving the dock and docking
• navigation rules
• navigation lights and sound signals
• aids to navigation
• rivers, dams, locks and bridges
• charts and compasses
• legal requirements for boaters and boats
• boating emergencies

A good list, but as I mentioned, lacking any practical boat handling experience.

The program, soon into its second year, is mandated on a phased-in schedule.

Year	Age Group
2008	12 years to 20 year old
2009	25 years old and younger
2010	30 years old and younger
2011	35 years old and younger
2012	40 years old and younger
2013	50 years old and younger
2014	59 years old and younger
2015 and after	Any person born after January 1, 1955
A person born before Jan. 1, 1955, is exempt from needing a Boater Education Card in Washington

So, if you are between 21 to 25 this coming year, 2009, you'll need to successfully complete an accredited course and get a Washington State Boater Education Card.The card costs $10 and is good for life.If you're 54, or older, as of January 1st, 2009, you are exempt from needing a card.

If you cruise in Canada for more than 45 days, or in Oregon you will need a Boater Education Card. Washington has reciprocal agreements with Canada and Oregon and other states.

But a word of caution. Regardless of Washington's age exemption for those of us born before January 1st, 1955, Canada does not accept this exemption: All ages require a Card. Oregon State does not accept the exemption, either.

Where do you get this course, you ask? Go to the the Washington State boating program website for a list of approved boater education courses. Besides the Washington State course, there are other approved courses, most with a fee. My own recommendation would be the BoatU.S. Foundation Online Boating Safety Course, which is free, except for the $10 card fee. 

I had thought about merging the state's course into my CruiseMasters Boating Instruction program, but decided against it. The state program includes both Inland and International rules, and covers sail and personal watercraft (PWCs) issues. CruiseMasters focus is on powerboats (not sail or PWC) operating on International waters, i.e. all the salt water you see around the Northwest. It just is not feasible to combine the two. Having said this, I can provide the state's Boating Safety Course and I am authorized to issue the Boater Education Card.

So, just think. Six years from now, when you get swamped by an arrogant boater roaring close by, you'll be comforted knowing that at least they are aware that that's a big no-no. Unless, of course, they're very ancient mariners.

But, as I said, it's a good step forward. So, Happy New Year and get your Boater Education Card.

Christmas

On this day earth shall ring

with the song children sing

to the Lord, Christ our King,

born on earth to safe us:

him the Father gave us.

Ideo, Ideo, Ideo gloria in excelsis Deo!

His the doom, ours the mirth;

when he came down to earth

Bethlehem saw his birth;

ox and ass beside him

from the cold would hide him.

Ideo, Ideo, Ideo gloria in excelsis Deo!

God's bright star, o'er his head,

Wise Men three to him led;

kneel they low by his bed,

lay their gifts before him,

praise him and adore him.

Ideo, Ideo, Ideo gloria in excelsis Deo!

On this day angels sing;

with their song earth shall ring,

praising Christ, heaven's King,

born on earth to save us;

peace and love he gave us.

Ideo, Ideo, Ideo gloria in excelsis Deo!

Piae Cantiones, 1582, tr. Jane M. Joseph (1894-1929)

("Ideo gloria in excelsis Deo!" is Latin for "Therefore, glory to God in the highest!")

Photo: "Living In a Christmas Tree", Christmas 2006 aboard the Lady Mick, by Doug Mill

Weather or Knot

Yesterday's trip into Seattle to both shop and re-experience the sights and sounds of Christmas downtown, saw June and me scurrying back late-afternoon to the Edmond's ferry and on to Kingston as predicted snow started falling. And fall it did last night, plus wind, plus drifting. Now we hear that (possibly) this weather will last all the way to the New Year. 

Having spent some twenty winters in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Ottawa, Quebec and Alberta, I tend a somewhat cavalier attitude to it all, forgetting that our local infrastructures plus everybody else's driving skills (certainly not mine!) put such attitudes to an unforgiving test.

This time of year I check to see who is winning the Alberta cool test: Yesterday Edmonton's -4 and -13 beat Calgary's  -2 and -11, When it comes to cold I'm glad to no longer live in either area, although two of my kids, Lesley and Chris, and their families living in Lincoln NE with today's high of 5 low of -10, don't seem to mind it.   

Yesterday we say a lone crab fisherman in an open skiff working off President Point and wished for a camera. 

Weather is certainly the topic of the day, at least these immediate days, with Canada's arctic cold contribution roaring down the Fraser River Valley. And forecasting seems to be a mix of science, divination, chance, and hope.

Here are some sites that might be helpful as you try your skill discerning (divining?) what the future holds in store. Besides, some are just fun to cruise while you're weathered-in, or otherwise.

• Cliff Mass, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington (whose mentor was Carl Sagan) has an excellent weather blog which he seems to update all day long. Really makes the weather understandable. Reader comments from around the Northwest add to the latest weather reports.
  
• National Weather Service. You can set this for any specific location either by city or latitude/longitude.
• NOAA's Marine Forecast. A must for mariners.
• Some nearby Canadian sites. Victoria, Sidney, South Coast of British Columbia including Vancouver Island, Vancouver Island winds.
• Dungenness Light House Weather, Sequim.
• National Data Buoy Center. A look out into the Pacific as well as close to home at both buoys and stations.
• Winds and temperatures on the Washington State Ferry routes.

All well worth bookmarking.

And there are many more sites that you may know of. Please let me know via the "comments" invitation following this posting. With enough I can easily post an update and widen our boating community's weather resource bank.

Meanwhile, stay safe, especially on those icy docks. While the water of Puget Sound is warmer than the air right now, that's of little comfort to a soaked sailor or a guest!

Now, if you've excused this posting's headline pun, above, a Happy Winter Solstice to you all.

Photo: Kingston Village scene, by June Jackson

And More Pictures

Last week I wrote about my daughter Lesley Jackson's photoblog. Her pictures encouraged a close friend of ours to start his own photoblog. John Larson is a recent transplant to Corvallis, Oregon, from Sequim, Washington the home of the John Wayne Marina  - - and we haven't quite forgiven Ellen and John for moving from the true (that is, above latitude 47 North) Great Northwest. John is not a boater (but he does have soul!), rather a serious cyclist and now a dedicated photographer. His initial pictures are great. So, if you like more quality photography, visit him under Photography from Corvallis OR on My Blog List, to the left.

With John is Beau, their Bichon Frise, a cousin to our own Bichon, Jolie.

Washington Sea Grant

This week's mail brought my annual calendar from Washington Sea Grant. Their calendars are not the run-of-the-mill commercial mailings (and I do get my share of those, too). Rather, on a single large (22" x 17") sheet, not only are there the twelve months, but the whole top half is a glorious painting by Joel Nakamaru (see, above) depicting the sea life from orca to oysters in our marine environment.

This gift is also a reminder that my joy in boating also carries with it a need for stewardship of the waters on which I boat. For years we boaters, as did the most the rest of the population, tended to treat the waters as though they were unlimited in their forgiveness of our arrogant and rather neanderthal attitudes of pollution, over fishing, and our general disregard for the fragility of the system. Of course, some folk have known otherwise and acted responsibly, but not many.

But now, as I read all the literature about the damage we have done to Puget Sound, and the daunting efforts needed to correct this, even assuming that it is correctable, seriously concerns me. Washington Sea Grant is one of many major efforts aimed in this direction. (People for Puget Sound, well led by Kathy Fletcher, and where our youngest daughter, Lindsay, did an internship some years ago, is another.) Washington Sea Grant is a joint venture between the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, better known to many of us as simply NOAA.

Events, such as a February workshop for commercial and recreational boaters on "Marine Electrical Wiring", as well as the 2009 Puget Sound Georgia Basin Ecosystem Conference "The Future of the Salish Sea: A Call to Action" also in February, bookend WSG's activity.

If we're going to be prudent boaters, we owe it to ourselves and our kids, and the environment on which we enjoy our boating, to become more aware and then to get involved. Take a moment and visit Washington Sea Grant. And also check out the 2009 calendar. While you're at it, take a look at People for Puget Sound, too.

And it's not too early to consider some practical New Year's resolutions - - environmental ones, that is. Cutting down on Twinkies may be good for you; cutting down on pollution is good for all of us, orca and oysters, too. 

A December Reflection . . .

Morning at the Kingston Marina and Ferry Terminal, as captured by June Jackson.

A Photographer and a Dad

"The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh."

Photographer Edward Henry Weston (1986-1958)

What Dad can resist extolling his daughter's skills?.

For some exquisite photography, go to Lesley's Photoblog, just to the left, under My Blog List. 

Her 'Morning Has Broken'  (posted December 3rd) is simply wonderful! And so are the others.

Automatic Identification System

You're cruising blissfully on a beautiful, calm morning. Just a wisp of cloud; a mill-pond sea. Radar and VHF radio on - - nothing on the scope, no chatter on Channel 16. Your morning coffee is strong and smells, oh, so good. Life is simply - - grand.

You approach Turn Point on the western edge of Stuart Island, running southwest down Boundary Pass , wondering if you'll luck out this time and see some Orcas. Not a single blip on the radar. Just to be safe you switch to the Canadian Vessel Traffic Services' Channel 11 to monitor any commercial shipping in the area. Nothing heard. Nada.

Just as you get really close to the Point, all of a sudden appears a ship, seeming larger than life, running at about 20 knots, and heading straight for you! His ear-splitting five short whistle blasts propel your quick turn to port as he clears you. Then comes his wake. . . . .

A couple of years ago we discovered a great gadget that helps see these situations coming: an Automatic Identification System, or ASI, which is really simplicity itself.

What the AIS is is a radio system, and being a radio system is it can "see" vessels without you (or your radar) being able to physically see them, behind hills, around bends such as Turn Point, in the same way that you can "hear" radio conversations from out-of-sight boats or stations. We have our AIS connected to our navigation system, which happens to be Rose Point's "Coastal Explorer".

Overlaid on our electronic chart are symbols (they look like a child's wooden boat) showing all the vessels within radio range. Then clicking on the symbol, or mark, you see the vessel's name; if it is "at anchor", "underway using engine", or "not under command"; type of ship and cargo; tonnage; dimensions; speed and course over ground; call-sign; MMSI; and destination, and when it will get there. For anything else you'd have to go to My Space.

It also gives you some navigational information, such as the vessels lat/long position, the closest point it will come near you and the time when this will happen. All this gets updated on you electronic chart every six minutes.

Although I haven't had occasion to, with all this you could even call the vessel by name and call-sign on your VHF radio, rather than that impersonal "ship off my port bow".

The hardware is simple. A regular VHF antenna to a small 4.5" x 3" x 1" unit which you can mount on an overhead, and a connector to your laptop or navigation plotter. My unit came from Milltech Marine in Seattle. There are others. The folk there are good and helped me get exactly what I needed. Cost was under $200.

All commercial vessels are required to have AIS that broadcasts all this information. The AIS I have only receives. Someday I may get one that also transmits, so that other vessels can "see" me and know all sorts of things about me.

But for now, I'm happy to be able to see around Turn Point even before I'm there and to know that the "Pacific Express", heading for Vancouver BC, is coming 'round the bend!

And when at evening anchor in Sucia Island's Shallow Bay, calmly nursing a cool glass of wine, it doesn't bother me one bit when my wife and traveling companions kid me as I sit tracking vessels on my plotter.

"Look, there goes the B.C. Ferry "Spirit of Vancouver Island" leaving Tsawwassen. And there's the tug "Intrepid III" with a tow, just rounding Moresby Island. Wow!"

Nope. It's just another form of mariner relaxation.

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! (Part 1)

We were on our way back from the Canadian Gulf Islands bound for Friday Harbor. Suddenly, on Channel 16, came "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! We have a fire on board. We are just in the San Juan Channel. We are putting our passengers off in our shore boat. Over." Almost immediately the U.S. Coast Guard answered the call.

We were just off Turn Point, Stuart Island, and close to the boat in trouble, so we told the Coast Guard that we were responding. Right on our heels, other vessels, including a classic sailing vessel, said that they, too, were responding.

As we all closed on the boat, it's skipper (who had remained wonderfully calm and obviously well in command) announced that the fire turned out to be a broken hose spewing hot steam into the boat. A possible tragedy that, luckily, turned out well. The Coast Guard relieved all of us from the response commitment.

Some of us never think about having to - - none of us hope never having to -- some of us have had to - - that is, make a Mayday call.

And if you had to make this distress call, you had to go to Channel 16 (of course your VHS radio was turned on - - you'd been faithfully monitoring that channel, hadn't you?), make the call giving your location (where the heck are we?) your situation, and other stuff. And of course you were doing your best to stay calm, focused, speak clearly, and hope that you got through, at the same time wondering what the heck to do, and how to keep crew and passengers calm. That was then.

Now there's a far stronger and much easier system, thanks to the US Coast Guard, a Digital Selective Calling  system (DSC) called "Radio 21", which is almost automatic.

What is Radio 21? Simply put, when you're in a distress situation, you simply press a button which tells the whole world (Okay, at least the world within a couple of hundred miles) who you are, where you are, that you're in trouble and that you want help, and now. All this without saying a word, simply a push of a button.

How does it work and what do you need to do?

• First you need a VHF radio that has a DSC feature. All new models do. If yours doesn't, it might be wise to upgrade now - - it's your safety we're talking about.

• Then you need to get a radio identification number, a Mobile Marine Safety Identification (MMSI). This is a unique nine- digit number that not only identifies your radio (and, thus, your boat) but also has a data base on file with your name, address, contact names and phone numbers are all stored in the Coast Guard's national search and rescue database. If you have a Federal Communications Commission radio license, you can get a MMSI number (new licenses can come with one, if you request) from the FCC. If you don't have an FCC license you can register to get a MMSI number through BoatUS. Once you have the number you program it into your radio. Having a DSC-equipped radio and not having a MMSI number programmed into your radio is like having a cell phone without having a phone number.

• The DSC-equipped radio has a special Distress button, usually red, often protected by a red pop-up cover. When you press this button the radio automatically transmits your emergency call on Channel 70, the channel reserved  for digital call, only.

• To make the system really work efficiently and at its fullest capability, your DSC-equipped radio needs to be interfaced with your GPS or Loran receiver. Then, when your distress signal is transmitted it also includes your actual location - - your latitude and longitude. Now how cool is that? Location, boat name, your name, and lots more, all sent with just the push of a button.
  

When you make the "call", your radio then automatically switches back to Channel 16, if it wasn't watching there before, and almost immediately the Coast Guard watchkeeper will come back at you, live and in voice, to get more information from you.

Look for more on "Rescue 21" in a future post. In the meantime, upgrade your VHF to a DSC equipped model if you need to, and get your MMSI number, now.

It's your life, your passengers' lives, your boat. What more can I say?